That seems to suggest that Harry has entirely given up on the idea of judging people by what they do… at least, when it comes to Quirrell.
Quirrel is a schemer and what he does or rather wants you to think he does is not what he really did. Let’s take the dementor for an example. What Quirrel did was bring a powerful creature within reach of Harry with the effect of almost killing him. But also with the effect of teaching Harry the true Patronus. How would you judge Quirrel according to this deed? With a more straight forward character you could assume he really wanted to teach the children to defend themselves which probably is good. And Harry realized that this straight forward reasoning doesn’t apply to Quirrel.
In this instance Quirrel probably realized something of the problem with good and powerful wizards could not cast Patroni and thought that Harry’s absolutely odd way of thinking of things might be able to solve it. It would make sense that he should do this quickly as his plans to turn Harry into a Dark Lord might get in the way of this.
Quirrel is a schemer and what he does or rather wants you to think he does is not what he really did. Let’s take the dementor for an example. What Quirrel did was bring a powerful creature within reach of Harry with the effect of almost killing him. But also with the effect of teaching Harry the true Patronus. How would you judge Quirrel according to this deed? With a more straight forward character you could assume he really wanted to teach the children to defend themselves which probably is good. And Harry realized that this straight forward reasoning doesn’t apply to Quirrel.
In this instance Quirrel probably realized something of the problem with good and powerful wizards could not cast Patroni and thought that Harry’s absolutely odd way of thinking of things might be able to solve it. It would make sense that he should do this quickly as his plans to turn Harry into a Dark Lord might get in the way of this.
Unless he didn’t. He is not, after all, a good and powerful wizard :D
He may not be good, but he is good at research.